An ax murder, a hanging, and a “curse” in Lafayette

Writers of Newlafayette.org have been working with the Yamhill County Historical Society and other sources to obtain accurate history about Lafayette.

According to sources, there are a lot of rumors and even inaccurate information that have been printed about the details that outline Lafayette’s rich history.

One article, which has been said to be fairly accurate, was posted by the News Register in 2009. It outlines the gory details of the murder of a Lafayette downtown shop owner and the so-called curse the mother of the hanged murderer placed on the city of Lafayette.

According to the article, “an intriguing incident in the annals of Oregon’s frontier history” came to be called “The Lafayette Gypsy Curse.” The following excerpts were taken from the July 2009 News Register post. Pictures were obtained from the Yamhill County Historical Society.

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It began with the slaying on Nov. 1, 1886, of Lafayette storekeeper David I. Corker. It ended on Nov. 11, 1887, with the execution of his convicted killer, Richard Marple.

Richard Marple was a newcomer to Lafayette, having moved there from Corvallis with his wife, Julia, and mother, Anna, in 1885. Despite numerous job opportunities in the prosperous county seat (Lafayette), he did not seek regular employment.

Instead, the brash 27-year-old is believed to have made his living committing robberies. Sheriff Thomas H. Harris considered him the likely perpetrator of several in the area.

That suspicion intensified when bystanders heard Marple ridicule Corker, openly proclaiming how simple it would be to rob the 57-year-old shopkeeper, as he was hard of hearing and ran his business alone.

When Corker was discovered dead in his ransacked store, hacked mercilessly with an ax, the sheriff brought Marple in for questioning. He denied any part in the crime, but spoke derogatorily of Corker in the same breath.

At his home, they found a bloody shirt, a piece of bloody paper in one of his pants pockets and tools that could have been used to break into the store. Marple responded by accusing a detective of dipping the shirt and paper in Corker’s blood and planting the evidence.

Despite his vehement protestations, as well as the sworn testimony of his wife and mother that he was elsewhere on the fateful night, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder on April 9, 1887.

His mother, Anna, was originally indicted as an accomplice. However, the charges were eventually dropped due to insufficient evidence. His wife, Julia, bed-ridden at the time, was absolved of involvement.

Marple’s execution took place within the confines of a wooden stockade thrown up next to the county jail in Lafayette. A sizable crowd gathered outside the crude walls, awaiting word of how it went.

Thirty people were invited in as witnesses, and they had plenty to tell afterward.

When Sheriff Harris ordered a black hood placed over his head, the doomed man yelled out, “Murder! May God judge you all!”

As the trap door was released, the knot in the noose slipped under his chin. Rather than breaking his neck, the tightening noose slowly strangled him to death.

Witnesses painted a grim picture of the 18 excruciatingly long minutes they spent observing Marple’s agonized writhings before he was finally pronounced dead by the medical examiner.

As the hanging went forward out of public sight, Marple’s mother, a supposed gypsy, could be heard shouting vile curses, proclaiming her son’s innocence and threatening to torch the town for such an unforgivable travesty.

Ironically, it turned out Marple had confessed his guilt to a fellow inmate while awaiting execution. And he implicated his mother, saying she had secretly taken up with Corker to gain his confidence.

Despite careful preparations, botched executions like this one were not all that uncommon. That led the state Legislature to order in 1903 that all executions be carried out within the walls of the state penitentiary in Salem.

Use of the gallows wasn’t abolished until 1931, when it was replaced by lethal gas.

Whether owing to Anna Marple’s curse or not, Lafayette’s 40-year streak of good fortune ran out the very next year. In 1888, ambitious McMinnville outmaneuvered its longer-established neighbor to become the seat of county government.

Never regaining its former glory, Lafayette suffered disastrous fires in the years that followed.

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Newlafayette.org has been unable to verify exactly how many fires have occurred. The NewsRegister article stated the last fire occurred in 1904 and destroyed the entire business district. However, we obtained a photograph (shown above) dated 1928 that shows a disastrous fire in Lafayette. Some sources say that two huge fires have occurred, others say that there have been three.

RESOURCES: The Yamhill County Historical Society, Book “Necktie Parties—Legal Executions in
Oregon 1851 –1905″ by Diane L. Goeres-Gardner, and the News Register.

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